 So, it's a question of morality then you're saying. It's barbaric in this day and age, and yes, thoroughly immoral. Okay. All right, let's say this man kills your wife. You still feel the same way? May I be angry? Of course. But I think the state has the moral authority to take the life of the murderer? Oh, so it's not so clear now. It's absurd to kill a man in an attempt to demonstrate that killing is wrong. The state is not God. It does not have the right to take away what it cannot restore what it wants to. Life in prison is the more civilized approach. On the contrary, capital punishment takes a man's life instantly, whereas life in prison takes his life slowly. Which is more immoral? To take a man's life in an instant, or to drag the life out of him slowly over a lifetime? Well, I think both the death and wife sentences are equally immoral. I'd most certainly choose the second. To live in confinement is much better than to not live at all. Preposterous. I'll bet you two million dollars you couldn't spend five years in solitary confinement. You're serious. I'll take that bet. Let's not make it five years. Let's make it fifteen. Fifteen? Done. And you're my witness. I will stake two million dollars. Fine. You wager your millions. I'll wager my freedom. This is absurd, Colin. You must reconsider. Are you certain? Think about it. To me, two million dollars is a mere trifle, whereas you will lose three or four years of your life. And I say three or four, because you won't last any longer. I'd never been more certain about anything in my life. And remember, voluntary confinement is much more painful than compulsory. The knowledge that you can simply walk away any time you want will drive you mad. Young man, don't throw away your life for mere money. So it's settled. You'll spend fifteen years in one of my cottages, never see another human being, have no contact with the outside world other than food, music, books. And if you break any of those rules, you forfeit the bet. We'll start as soon as possible. I feel sorry for you. I truly do. What was the object of that bet? Did it prove that the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison? No. It was all nonsensical and meaningless. Judging by his notes, he became quite lonely and depressed that first year. The sounds of his guitar could be heard day and night, and the books he requested were of a light and romantic nature. By the second year, the guitar had fallen silent. His reading turned to the classics, and those who watched him through the window reported seeing him lying in bed, eating. By the sixth year, he had begun zealously studying languages, philosophy, and history. Over the following four years, he read hundreds of books, and by the end produced a letter. My dear jailer, I've read you these lines in six languages. Show them to people who know the languages. If they find not one mistake, I implore you to fire a shot in the garden to let me know. The geniuses of all ages and of all lands speak different languages, but the same flame burns in all of them. How if you only knew what unearthly happiness my soul feels now from being able to understand them? After the tenth year, he began reading nothing but scriptures, from religions around the globe, rereading and studying for days at a time. In the last two years of his confinement, he read an immense quantity of books, quite indiscriminately. He would begin reading about the natural sciences, and then abruptly ask for Byron or Shakespeare. He read manuals, books on chemistry, philosophy, anything. His reading suggested a man swimming in a sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save his life by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another. And yet, he remained in the room, and tomorrow, at midnight, he would have regained his freedom, and I would have been out two million dollars and be totally ruined had my gardener not found the note. Tonight at midnight I shall regain my freedom, but before I do, I tell you that I despise freedom, life and health. For fifteen years I've been studying earthly life, and while I've not seen the earth through other men, through your books I've drunk fragrant wine, I've sung songs, I've hunted stags, and I've loved beautiful women. Your books have given me wisdom, all that the unresting thought of man has created throughout the ages is compressed into a small compass in my brain. I know that I am wiser than all of you. You may be proud, wise and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth, as though you are no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe. To prove how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two million dollars of which I once dreamed of as paradise, and which I now despise. In the hour before the fixed time, I shall leave this self-imposed confinement and finally be free from all earthly traps.